>> where was that taken? >> at the embassy in stockholm. >> oh, all right. >> that's her life. all right, everybody. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> time for morning joe. now it's time for the morning run down with chuck todd. >> chuck! >> back to the future. president obama kick starts another fight over the bush tax cuts. he hits the road to a couple of swing states. he hits mitt romney with tough charges that he's too rich to know what most americans need for a better economy. meanwhile, the obama campaign tries to rally women voters in key states with a tough new ad. later how the attacks on planned parenthood are driving a counter attack for november. back on capitol hill, republicans press ahead with plans to repeal the president's health care law. we'll go nowhere after the house vote. does it help or hurt romney with undecided voters on the campaign trail? good morning. it's tuesday, july 10, 2012.

i'm chuck todd. first read of the morning. today, president obama and mitt romney stump in important swing states. the topic of the day for both candidates will be taxes. the president will put a face on his effort to extend the bush era tax rates only for americans making less than $250,000 a year. when he holds a roundtable at the home of a couple in cedar rapids iowa as mitt romney has a town hall in grand junction, colorado. george w. bush hasn't been on a national ballot in eight years but his tax cuts are front and center. the president opens up a new attack against mitt romney trying to drive a wedge between the middle class tax cuts and tax breaks for the rich. >> it's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, folks like myself, to expire. >> the white house vowed that the president will veto any legislation that includes tax cut extensions for the wealthy.

it's a promise though the president has made before during his first campaign for president. >> let's roll back the bush tax cuts that went to the wealthiest americans. >> and again in 2010. >> how do you get up here and talk about how you care so deeply about the deficit and yet you want to perpetuate a tax cut that costs $700 billion. with a b. >> four months later he signed the extension of all the tax cuts. now, all of this is about trying to put romney on the defensive and actually highlight romney's own personal wealth. and the president is trying again. >> let's not hold the vast majority of americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. my opponent will fight to keep

them in place. i will fight to end them. that argument shouldn't threaten you. >> remember, the holy grail for democrats is decoupling the bush tax cuts, separating out the ones for the wealthy versus the ones for everybody else. in a radio interview mitt romney slammed the president's announcement hitting him saying it's another economic misstep. >> another kick in the gut to the middle class in america. we just saw a terrible jobs report just last week. and now to add a higher tax on job creators and on small business is about the worst thing i could imagine to do if you want to create jobs. >> this issue, romney was joined by congressional republicans. they repeated a line arguing that ending the bush tax cuts for the top 2% is in effect a tax increase on small business owners. the president anticipated that

talking point and he pushed back on it. >> the proposal i make today would extend these tax cuts for 97% of all small business owners in america. >> let's remember here, it's not just republicans who prevented the president from trying to decouple the tax cuts for the wealthy from the cuts for the middle class. it's not clear democrats agree with each other about where the cut-off should be. >> the problem is in my state there are a lot of people who make above 250 who aren't rich. >> well, okay. schumer was arguing for years actually to move the threshold up to a million. yesterday in a statement he said he's in total solidarity with the president. guess what. some senate democrats nervous about losing their seat weren't so e few sieve. senator bill nelson of florida said, quote, nelson's favored position is to permanently extend the bush era tax cuts for those making under $1 million. and for bob kerry running for

senate in nebraska told politico, kerrey believes the $250,000 limit is too low but is evaluating how specific proposals would affect the ballot. claire mchaskel said she would look at it to reign in the deficit. by the way, the president made sure to argue that the bush tax cuts never worked. >> we were told that it would lead to more jobs and higher incomes for everybody and prosperity would start at the top and then trickle down. what happened? instead of creating more jobs, we had the slowest job growth in half a century. >> one of the reasons the white house is sticking to the 250 and didn't agree with senate democrats in the effort to push up the threshold to a million dollars is the math doesn't work. you have a deficit gap. you lose about half that deficit reduction revenue that the white house is looking for if you move

that threshold up. so it may help on messaging, but it hurts them in the accounting. the obama campaign likes the tax issue, not just because it polls well. it does. but because they believe it allows them to tie together a core criticism they are doing of romney now. his personal wealth and their economic arguments. the campaign is out with another video doing that this morning demanding romney release more tax returns. yesterday for the first time the president himself dipped into the issue of romney's offshore investments. came during a series of local tv interviews. he was talking to new hampshire station wmur. >> is it your belief that it's not patriotic for someone to have a swiss bank account? >> well, you know, i think what's important if you are running for president is that the american people know who you are, what you have done and that you're an open book.

that's been true of every presidential candidate dating back to mr. romney's father. i think that given that a big part of his argument about why he should be president has to do with his private business success. i understand why it's important for him to go ahead and answer some questions. all of us have gone through it. >> in a radio interview with radio iowa, romney fired back at the democratic attempts to draw attention to the, quote, swiss bank account issue. >> i realize that the president's failure to actually reignite the economy makes it hard for him to discuss his own record. and so he's going to try and attack me on every personal basis he can come up with. all the taxes are paid, as appropriate. all of them have been reported to the government. there's nothing hidden there. >> you see they are trying to basically say mitt romney who looks for any loophole he can to

avoid paying some taxes now is arguing for another tax cut that will benefit him. so you see the larger narrative they are attempting here. the rnc hitting back on another issue the obama campaign had been trying to capitalize on in swing states. the rnc chairman follows obama to roll out obamanomics, outsourced.com. the site will show instances where the president's policy led to job creation overseas. this morning, david plouff responded to criticism of the use of a washington post story on bain's history of supposedly outsourcing in their own campaign ads. >> the romney campaign trying to get them to pull back the story and they refused. it's accurate. >> that's not what -- >> well, people who look at it closely. one fact. mitt romney wants to continue tax breaks for companies that

ship jobs overseas. he would do that as president. this president wants the focus on insourcing. >> what plouffe is talking about is the tax code and companies that ship jobs oversaes. the washington post has a story today that criticizes the obama administration saying the rhetoric is there but the policy follow through has fallen short. finally, democrats do believe they have one added bonus of starting the tax cut debate now. it could make house republicans look silly for relitigating health care for what they say is the 31st time. the house will take up the 31st attempt to defund or repeal all or parts of the affordable care act. this is speaker boehner moments ago. >> tomorrow, the house, once again, is going to vote to repeal all of obamacare. [ applause ] we are resolved to get rid of a law that will ruin the best

health care delivery system the world has ever seen. it will bankrupt our country and make it impossible to grow our economy. that's why we're doing it. [ applause ] >> a week after we saw the public views of the supreme court's ruling on health care, a new washington post/abc poll shows little movement on the ruling itself. america is divided. 42% approve of the ruling. 44% disapprove after a week of digesting it. there is a significant change on views of the law itself. in the post poll, 47% support the law and 47% oppose it. in april, 39% backed it and 53% opposed it. among those who oppose the law there is a division about whether repeal is the best route. 33% favor repealing the whole law. 30% say to repeal parts of it. 34% say to wait and see. interesting to watch that vote

today. the markets are watching europe as spain's bailout is ratified. 20 minutes from the opening bell. let's get a a market rundown. andrew ross sorkin is here. what about the chatter after the tepid jobs numbers about qe-3. >> there is a sense that could happen but farther down the road. the big news this morning is what's going on in europe. that's moving markets a little bit higher as we speak. the futures look like they will open up better. we are in the midst of earnings season. we heard from alcoa last night. they had a little bit of a slight drop in earnings. however, there was good news in terms of demand on the autos front. that was giving a little bit of a positive step to all of this. later this week we got jp morgan which a lot of people will pay attention to. on wall street, the issue is the

libor scandal continuing. new questions about whether regulators were in on some of the price fixing that we have been discussing for the past couple of weeks now. congress started to ask the new york fed what it knows. so that's the talk of the town this morning. not so much moving the markets. but definitely moving mouths as people chit-chat. >> for layman's term it is libor is a british rate people base their mortgages on, right? >> less mortgages but it uh affected student loans and really is the baseline, if you will, for a lot of the economy and corporate loans and things of that sort and plays a huge role in where we are in some respects. so the idea that banks have been colluding if that's what happened here may have a huge effect, not just on the economy, but our trust, of course. >> i was going to say, the eroding trust of wall street.

another dipg. >> another nail in the coffin. you bet. >> up next, congress getting ready to repeal the health care law -- again. will the 31st time be the charm? we'll ask a top republican in the house why this time will somehow be different. plus, perry versus the president. why he's saying no to $70 billion in federal funding. first a look ahead at the schedule. both the president and mitt romney today, as you know, hit two states that both of them need -- iowa and colorado -- in order to make the path to 270 a lot less complicated. watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. aspirin, really?

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well, the easiest and most immediate cut would be obamacare. the american people don't want it. it was pushed through on a totally partisan basis. the cost is almost $100 billion a year. it's an expense we simply cannot afford. >> that was mitt romney talking to radio iowa. staying consistent on his pledge to repeal the president's health care law. house republicans don't want to wait for election results. democrats say tomorrow's repeal is the 31st crack at killing all or parts of the law. kathy mcmorris rogers is vice chair of the house republican congress and the highest ranking republican woman in congress. she joins me now. good morning. >> good morning. >> all right. i want to ask about this repeal effort. since there isn't going to be an alternative of what gets put into place, isn't this nothing more than a symbolic vote to set up the fall campaign?

>> this is a vote about policy. house republicans believe that obamacare is bad policy, that it is actually going to threaten the high quality of care that we have enjoyed in america. medical innovation that's taken place in this country. it imposes huge taxes on the country and americans actually oppose this bill more today than ever. and the supreme court, a week ago thursday, ruled, yes, that the law is constitutional. and that the mandate is a tax. that doesn't mean that this is good policy. we're going to take the vote today to repeal this bill, get it off and start over an health care reform. >> on public opinion it's split now. it actually has shifted a little bit. i know that maybe that doesn't fit in with some of the talking points on this. it was a little bit unpopular for a while. seems to be a little less so. there seems to be a message the public is sending that, you know, don't necessarily throw

this entire law out. there is clear majority in the latest poll that doesn't want the entire law thrown out. how do you respond to that? >> well, the people -- the more they get to see what's in the bill, the more concerns they have. health care decisions and health care belongs in the hands of individuals and patients and doctors. yesterday, there was a report by the doctor-patient medical association that showed 83% of doctors in this country have considered quitting because of obamacare. even right now in eastern washington, try to find a doctor who will take a new medicare patient. it's difficult. we are seeing the negative impact of obamacare on health care, access and quality of care. as more people are seeing the impacts, the more they are concerned. it's estimated by the cbo 20 million americans will lose their health insurance,

employer-provided health insurance. premiums are increasing. $2100 on average this year. premium increase for american families. people are quite concerned about the law. yes, people want health care reform. >> there is always fear of change. people want reform and then the are nervous when the reform gets put in. what's the alternative here? you talk about the different issues. how are you going to bring down, for instance, the cost of insurance if you don't make sure everybody who affords health insurance gets it? >> well, yes. it is a priority to make sure there is more access to affordable health insurance. america needs health care reform. obamacare is the wrong prescription, the wrong health care reform. we need to get it off the books and press the restart button. we need to look at policies that will ensure access for every american to affordable health insurance, health care in this country. that can be done by creating more options, more choices

within the marketplace. expanding health savings accounts. allowing individuals to go beyond state boundaries. allowing people to pool to purchase health insurance. those are the ways we create competition in the marketplace. more choices for the consumer and bring back the decision-making to the individual and families rather than this big government massive intrusion into our health care in this country. >> let me ask you about taxes. i assume you are not in favor of sort of decoupling, passing the extension on the middle class tax cuts now and essentially punting the debate about what to do on the tax cuts over the $250,000. any reason why to punt that if the bill comes up, white say, okay, we all agree. everybody seems to agree. nobody wants taxes to go up on the first $250,000. let's pass it now. what's wrong with a that? >> it wasn't long ago that president obama said this would

be the worst time to raise taxes on anyone in america. >> but that's not what the issue is on the table. out's about do you have an issue with extending it for the first 250 and punting the debate until after the election on the rest of it? >> this would be the worst time to raise taxes on anyone in this country. we just got the jobs report on friday. our economy continues to struggle. when you look at raising taxes right now, on top of the taxes and the more costs that are going to be imposed on the american people because of obamacare, this is less net income for american families. what we want now is american families to be able to keep more of their dollars and to be able to make health care decisions. this would be the wrong time to raise taxes on anyone. >> so you're saying -- you're not answering the question. you don't want to decouple? you don't believe tax cuts should be voted on separately? >> well, i believe -- what you're saying in that question

is that -- you're proposing we would allow taxes to go up on january 1 for a large portion of the country and for many small businesses that are the ones where job creation takes place. 70%, 80% of job creation in america takes place with small businesses. >> you're saying there is not enough support if you decoupled it, that there is not enough support to have separate votes on the middle class tax cuts and tax cuts for the wealthier americans? there is not enough support to separate the votes? that seems to be what you're saying as well. >> well, when you -- in that question, you are suggesting that the -- to allow taxes to go up, to raise taxes on small business owners, a large portion of those that president obama has said he would not extend the current tax rates would be for small business owners that pay taxes for individual tax rates

rather than corporate tax rates. president obama said this would be about raising taxes on anyone. >> it said only 3% of small businesses would fall under this. you dispute the numbers? >> i do dispute those numbers. when you look at the number of small businesses that pay taxes as individuals rather than corporations it's a much larger number than what the president is proposing. >> all right. i will have to leave it there. republican from washington state. thanks for coming on this morning. >> thanks. >> all right. up next, the fight over fund raising. mitt romney is raising a lot more cash than president obama. how is the president outspending romney? i'll explain. there are a lot of asterisks to the fund-raising stuff. and this isn't a surprise. every quarter we see more. elizabeth warren is raking it in. first today's trivia question. how many incumbent presidents were defeated during the 20th century?

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right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. one in five americans cannot get any health care and medicaid expansion. a uh few other stories on our radar this morning. texas governor rick perry joined the list of governors who won't expand medicaid under president obama's health care reform law. texas is the 7th and largest state to reject the expansion according to a list kept by the hill newspaper. florida, kansas, iowa, south carolina and wisconsin. all seven have republican governors and make up 21% of the

population. eight other states are leaning toward rejecting the expansion. look at the map here. seven of them have republican governors. the exception is missouri. that state's legislature and lieutenant governor's office are controlled by republicans. the obama campaign pulled in $71 million last month, less than romney's $106 million haul. second consecutive month they have outraised the president. what looks like a sizable advantage for team romney isn't there now. let me explain. romney can't spend any of the general election funds he raised until after he accepts the republican nomination in late august during the convention. until then the romney campaign is stuck with primary dollars putting him at a spending disadvantage during the summer months because obama didn't have a primary. he's still using primary funds to do the ads. romney had to use a lot of primary money on the actual

republican primary. elizabeth warren's senate campaign raised $3.1 million last month and brought in her second quarter fund raising total to $8.7 million. scott brown has yet to release his figures. the race is on track to be one of the most expensive in history according to the boston globe. speaking of senate news, nevada democrat shelly berkeley is facing house ethics charges. she's being investigated into whether she used her office to financially benefit her husband. all ten members of the panel, bipartisan group, voted to move forward with the investigation. folks, she's the democratic nominee in the nevada senate race. this is held by dean helder. it's a seat democrats are trying to get into the battleground. it's a steeper hill decline for

congresswoman berkeley. winning women, the campaign in battleground states going after a the stance on abortion and planned parenthood. it works. the president of planned parenthood joins me next. [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. [ jennifer ] better. stronger. believe. happier. healthier. i believe weight watchers made me more powerful. it's time to believe again. stand up and take charge. i believe if you want to change your life, you can.

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the contraception debate this spring put planned parenthood on the front line of a political debate over health care. we'll take a look at how allies are attempting to fight back. planned parenthood became a political football with democrats touting the group's benefits for women outside of birth control. the organization went on offense this summer, helping a well known supporter by putting anti-mitt romney ads up in key battleground states. >> when romney says -- >> do i believe the supreme court should overturn roe v.

wade? yes. >> we'll get back to you on that. >> he's putting your paycheck at risk. >> that ad ran in florida and des moines, iowa. surveys by hart research associates claim that they were very effective ads among women voters. there was a 17-point advantage for the president among women in west palm beach who recalled the ad against those who did not. the gap was wider in des moines. women who didn't remember the spot were split between the president and mitt romney. the president's lead jumps to 28% among those recalling the ad calling romney out of touch. the obama campaign have one of their own ads running now over seven swing states. >> mitt romney supports overturning roe versus wade. romney backed a law to outlaw all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. that's not all. >> i will cut off funding to

planned parenthood. >> women voters will obviously play a role in the election. the abc poll has the president leading by 8 points in a demographic planned parenthood wants to see come out in big numbers for the commander in chief. cecile richards joins me now. good morning. >> hi, chuck. good to see you. >> let me ask you first on the big -- 20 years ago explain to viewers how many republican supporters of planned parenthood you had. >> 20 years ago. well, i don't know exactly 20 years ago but planned parenthood across the country was started by republicans in many, many states. i was just in arizona where peggy goldwater was a cofounder of planned parenthood. the most important thing to me is that we see 3 million patients a year. they are republicans and democrats and independents. women believe, as we do, that health care and access to health care shouldn't come with a

political label in this country. >> how has it -- this has always been the conundrum compared to other groups associated with the abortion rights movement. planned parenthood in years past used to not try to get involved in campaigns as much, particularly on the presidential level. did this change simply come because of the attack on your funding? >> well, i think -- look, the concern, particularly this presidential year, i don't remember ever a time in planned parenthood's history where we have had a national candidate for president pledge to get rid of planned parenthood. again, this is a an organization that provides 3 million folks a year with basic health care access. more than 90% of our services of preventative care, cancer screenings, birth control. for women, this is basic health care. we have been concerned and educating women about what's at stake in november.

what you said earlier and what we are seeing in the polls is that women of all stripes are very concerned that women's health care is under attack in this election. frankly has been under attack by mr. romney. >> now it's rhetorically under attack. his background has not been -- when he was governor of massachusetts did you feel he was anti-planned parenthood when he governed? >> that's what's incredible. he wasn't. yet somehow we saw in this republican presidential primary this race to the bottom where each candidate, including mr. romney were trying to outdo themselves about how bad they would be for women's health care. i don't think it's just rhetorical. i'm from texas. i have seen and we just saw governor perry today who is now ending the women's health program in texas, pledging to completely throw women off of health care in every way that he can. a federal report came out last week i saw that says it is the

worst state for health care access in the country. texas is now doing just what mr. romney pledged he was going to do for the country which is end family planning, end the national family planning program which was signed into law by nixon. it's a bipartisan program. he said he's going to get rid of planned parenthood. we have to take this seriously for the patients counting on us for basic health care. >> when you look at your budget, $1.6 million, i know a million dollars sounds like a lot of money to a lot of people in politics and the national campaign it's not. how much do you plan to spend in the presidential? >> we'll spend what we can raise. but essentially we are a health care provider. we provide 3 million folks care every year. that's where we spend our time and energy. this is an election that's going to be critical to whether women have access to preventative care, planned parenthood. we feel it's incumbent upon

planned parenthood to make sure women know what's at stake. the women we are hearing from are republicans, independents and democrats. they are saying, look, we don't want this election to be about whether we can get basic health care access in america. >> when you meet with -- i assume you have tried to meet with senate and house republicans. >> we do. >> about what could be done to soften the opposition to funding on planned parenthood. what do they tell you privately? >> they really say unfortunately the republican party has become -- it's not the republicans. frank will you it's not even the republicans in office in many cases. it's that the republican party leadership and the primary process makes it very difficult to be a moderate republican anymore on women's health care issues. i think those republicans who are moderate are often now have opponents in the primary as they are trying to move the party to the right. i think that's of concern.

again, this has been a topic discussed a lot. republicans started planned parenthood. they believe, just as we do, that women should have access to health care without government interference. that's really what the american people believe. unfortunately it is a political party issue. it's not a republican issue. >> just curious when it comes to abortion, is planned parenthood open to any restrictions that still keep abortion legal whether it's parental notification, things like that, moving at all in that direction in order to assuage some opponents that might say, okay, if you do that i won't be against you in defunding? >> it's interesting, chuck. abortion is the most highly regulated medical procedure in this country. there are enormous regulations. in some states obviously even more. what we find is when we talk to folks, to people about what they want government to do in the area of reproductive health care

they want to do two things. they want to make sure women have access to birth control and that's what we fight for every day. the more you reduce unintended pregnancy you reduce the need for abortion. and they want women to have access to basic health care. in this election, unfortunately, the positions that mr. romney is taking have nothing to do with abortion. they have to do with throwing women off basic family planning, birth control and cancer screening. that's a concern to women and men across all party lines. >> president of planned parenthood. thanks for coming on this morning. >> good to see you, chuck. >> up next, leaving the party. independents are the voting group on the rise in a bunch of key battleground states. our political panel will discuss what that could mean in november. first, white house soup of the day -- oh, my late father would love it. this was his single favorite soup.

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president obama and mitt romney virtually tied. you will hear that a lot in the next four months. what will give one of them the edge in the swing states? my panel today, neera tanden, kelly o'donnell in kelly green and the executive director of gopac started by pete dupont. >> pete. >> great name.

>> kelly, this part of the washington post abc poll getting a little more play. what's more important? obama's first term achievements. second term goals, # 51%. both equally 10%. i throw that up there because the romney campaign wants a referendum on the first term. the majority here saying, no, we want to hear more about what will happen in the second term which the president hasn't shared. >> exactly. democrats want to talk about what he accomplished with don't ask, don't tell and the lily ledbetter act and how they got going early. and what elections are about and what voters want. that's a place where the president needs to find more specifics going forward and that's also a troubling part because he's got to defend the record as well because republicans will not back off on making this about his record on things like the stimulus or certainly the president's health care law. that will never go away in this

election cycle. >> what's he going to do in a second term? it's a question that when asked of me if i'm doing a panel or something, i can't fully -- he's not outlined what a second term will look like? >> what's fascinating about the poll is people give him credit for concrete economic plans. he has an advantage over mitt romney. people favor his plans. they don't like mitt romney's plans. it's a parlor game to talk about whether or not he's laid it out. i expect that in the convention. that's the appropriate place to spell out the ideas. >> spell out what the second obama term is going to look like. >> people are giving him credit for that already in this poll. >> that goes to the issue that romney faces that he's not putting enough meat on the bones. clearly voters will uh punish one or the other for not doing that. >> any election with an incumbent is about their record and what they have done and do they deserve another term. independent voters aren't as

happy with the president's economic record, particularly in the battleground states. it's very concerning. now we find out that of this great government stimulus that created new jobs, 4.2 billion went to foreign companies. if we want to talk about a president, he wants to criticize mitt romney -- >> what about romney putting more meat on the bones? >> the 59-point plan. >> he says it. that was always funny. he unveiled it and stopped talking about it because he was criticized that it was too long. >> this is july, not november. we have a lot of time before the election. many voters won't tune in despite all of us who like to talk about it they won't tune in until august and september. that's when it's important. look at governor romney's record in massachusetts. a lot of very good things. the business resource system allowed companies to go to one place to get their company started. he and the legislature passed a sales tax holiday to incentivize people to buy. he did a $2,000 tax credit for

unemployed people who got hired and were trained. a lot of good things. >> if you look at what happened in the primary, mitt romney had the 59-point plan. then he was forced dramatically right. he had to he had to adopt a tax hike. he didn't want to adopt in the beginning. the republican party thought he was not conservative enough. he was forced to endorse the ryan budget. there was a debate within the romney campaign of how conservative to be. he can't flip flop back. >> one thing we learn side voters don't think they have heard enough about going forward. the rise of the independence. we ask how many incumbent presidents were defeated? the answer is five. it starts with taft, hoover,

ford, carter and george hw bush who lost to bill clinton. you have a trivia question you think should be on the show? maybe i am running out of ideas. that's not true. i can always come up with crazy senate race trivia, but i don't want to go sunday "new york times" crossword on you. [ man ] ever year, sophia and i use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing. or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thank youpoints to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way.

bring back our panel. interesting registration numbers. of the battle ground states, two very important states don't report by registration. virginia and ohio. a big caveat here. look at this and i ask you first. democrats collectively in the battle ground states lost nearly a half million voter

registrations. ouch. that's a big ouch. >> there is a big movement to independence. we have seen and heard less that independents are actually people who are partisan who don't identify with the parties. >> they are turned off with their own party and don't want to self identify. >> that are happened in the states a fair amount, but these states are good states for the president. he is still winning a lot of these. >> this is what they are found to do. this is your bread and butter of what you do. as one goes down, your numbers haven't moved up. it's the independent number. >> republicans are increasing in iowa and states like colorado. where are the independent voters going? if you look at the ten elections, they voted republican. if you are an independent and you haven't decided to vote for the president, it gets harder and harder to get independents

to vote for the president. >> how come we haven't seen more independents try to run? >> the party system makes it so difficult. if you are a candidate it's much harder. >> it's an odd conupd rum. >> state and local summit, bringing legislators across the country in denver, colorado. >> "usa today" as a study about whether kids are feeling like they are doing enough homework and more of them need to be challenged. >> i want another segment check. >> shameless plug. more me. >> follow me. >> great twitter handle. we will see you back here. coming up next is chris jansing.

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